Thinking Green: Houston's First Green Arts Fest

Next Saturday, Houston is having its first Green Arts Fest, an afternoon packed with visual and performance art all of an environmental ilk. Don't expect just a bunch of poets hugging trees, though.

Tifani Pust, the festival's organizer in conjunction with Greeni Recycling, Houston Green Scene and Planeta Verde Now, has gathered a group of artists that create recyclable wares. There's a guy that creates art from driftwood, a metal smith who only uses what he finds via metal detectors, and a magazine collage artist. "Recycled, upcycled, anything that has been used previously or was left behind by someone else," Pust explained. "Anything that you don't have to buy new."

Pust, an artist at Mosaic Theatre Company, began fusing environmentalism and theater when she noticed an overlap in the two. "Theaters constantly reuse their costumes," she said. "We do things to keep the costs down, but that's actually a green practice. A lot of theaters do it without realizing."

The festival celebrates the last day of the Flor Y Canto sustainable green theater camp, an east-side, green-minded theater summer camp for kids. All ages are welcome to the festival, which will end in a family-friendly environmental play called "The Last Paving Stone," written by Y. York. If a play with a set and costumes sounds un-environmental to the hardcore greenies out there, not to worry. Everything onstage is recycled.